"Paths are being created by taking them :-)" Trekki's Profile

Hello and welcome to my contribution to Virtualtourist :-)

Let me quote Albert Einstein; his words describe me and my travel philosopy much better than I can do so my humble English :-)

I found “my” countries and this means that I do not keep records of countries I have visited or lists of UNESCO sites. Although I see the idea behind UNESCO sites, I prefer to define my personal heritage on our planet. I also don’t need to see the Seven Wonders of the World because I define my personal wonders. All these I can easily find in my preferred countries Italy, Germany and there the regions of Umbria and Marche, Rheinland-Pfalz and Bavaria to be precise. Colours of white, blue and green give me peace. Colours of puffy clouds, water and green plants and trees. Windy and rainy regions, old stone houses, old wooden houses, castles and fortresses, thick forest, rivers. That is my world during travels. Patagonia, the southern part of South America, was my all time favourite. I loved the weather there, always unpredictable, sometimes wind as much as 150 km/h in El Chaltèn for example. This made me feel the microscopically tiny part of this planet that I really am, that we all really are and not the "super" business person role I am playing in the daily shark pond or zoo. Patagonia is where one still can find thick and pristine mountains, where it is easy to imagine that no one crossed them since millions of years. And this is where one can spend ages, counting the stars in the night, because in a radius of often 300 km, no other human being is living there. In recent years I found all this very close from where I live, in Rheinland-Pfalz’s Palatinate Forest and Hunsrück or in Italy’s Apennine Mountain and hilly regions.

Maybe you find locations on my pages, which you want to add to your personal heritage sites. I found some of my personal heritages browsing through VT pages :-)

This is why I like VT – it is inspiration for travels into the unknown.

Einstein wrote about the awe when contemplating the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the structure of reality. This is what I find in all my travels now - and even if it is from home to the office :-) Sometimes it is a tiny bud which announces spring, sometimes it is the light in the sky during a heavy storm, sometimes it is a tiny weathered stone bridge over a little creek, partly covered with moss. And sometimes it is the fresh and homemade goat cheese, which local farmers offer, when you stop by. Once, it was a night of full moon, miles and miles off civilisation, in Parque Nacional Cerro Castillo in Chile. Once, it was a days' horseback ride deep into Monument Valley, in December, with beautiful stormy weather and unforgettable light settings. Or it was and is my beloved Gubbio, where I will go as often as possible even if it is 1000 km away from where I actually live.

And then I arrived....

It happened in October/November 2009. I went to Italy, to Gubbio, to learn Italian. It was or is one of these most magic stories only life can write. I wanted to learn Italian since I was in Venezia. I wanted to understand more of what I saw and would see later on during my travels to Italy, I wanted to be able to talk to the people and and understand their various fascinating traditions, since I knew that Italy is the country where I will spend most of my travel time. Who wants to read the full story, please have a look at my Gubbio page.

Grazie mille again! Thank you, honourable Società di Balestrieri della Città di Gubbio for accepting my application for membership! I feel proud and honoured to be part of you and thus part of Gubbio. And thank you for having taught me so many things which finally enabled me to write my page about Gubbio. That is why I dedicate the Barney Award for the Best Overall Travel Page I won here on VT early 2011 to you. And I look forward to this special project I have already in my mind, which can only be realised with you.

New Year, new ideas, new horizons and new travels

End of 2011 I was again forced to lie in bed for two weeks with a pertinacious virus. And again I found that the most precious moments in life are when something throws one down, stops the participation in this silly “game” and leaves time to sort out thoughts. Life is submitted to changes, a lot of changes. Often these changes are caused by events or by people who cross one’s way, be it short encounters or longer ones, in business life or private life. Often it is also only later that one realises how encounters have influenced thoughts or even let new thoughts develop.
So where did the thoughts lead me this time? I realised that despite the many great changes here on Virtualtourist the fun got lost. The happy and funny interaction got lost. Is it because we live in a “Facebook world”? Friendship isn’t anything else but a click and the desire to have as many friends as possible? The shallowness of our high speed world? The hunt for fame and money? Take and not give? No thanks, this is nothing for me. My world is a world where friendship isn’t a click but a true feeling between people. My world is a world where senses are important, the five senses we once have been born with but which many I see in my business and private life and also here on VT have lost.
In terms of VT I also realised that I had went astray and let the ranking and rating game having caught me. I found myself writing my own things and reading others’ like mad just to get the counters up. But.... no more. I have deleted a lot of pages because they were old and not really useful. I am reading pages when I find them interesting, and not because I feel that I “must” read a page. The same goes for my own pages. I prefer to have readers who like to read what I am writing and definitely not ones who race through my pages in 3 minutes, leave a comment “oh, I didn’t read but I enjoy” and expect me to come back to their pages for that silly rating thing. Who expects me to do this – please stay away from my pages. I don’t need you and I don’t want you. Apart from that, I have a job and just cannot and will not "live" on VT. I have my own time schedules and real life and work will always be first. Thanks for understanding this.
Read only if you have a serious interest in what I am writing about the destinations I have visited. No matter if you want to go there or not.
And please, leave a comment.
Thanks.